Samsung Galaxy S vs. Nokia E5

This round will be a pretty easy “no-contest.” The Galaxy is slick, sleek and space age; when you place it on the table, people pay attention. All black and flawless, we love it. The only negative thing Kipp would say is it is basically derivative of the iPhone. One friend even asked us if it was the iPhone 4. Still, it’s a winner.

Editor's Score

1

BlackBerries and other “emailer” phones have a common problem: You can’t build anything with a pocket sized QWERTY keyboard and have it look good. You just can’t. One of Kipp’s colleagues has a pink BlackBerry, so we know that even if you jazz it up, it doesn’t look good. So it goes with the Nokia E5. The device is not sleek or sexy, it is just solid. It looks solid, feels solid, and that’s about all you can say about it. It’s well built.

Turn on the Galaxy and you will know one thing immediately. The screen is awesome. Moving through it is smooth and simple, and the touch screen functions flawlessly. But the phone settings and options were not always exactly where Kipp expected them to be: fixing a few of the simple settings seemed needlessly complex. And again, you can’t escape the fact that this is all very reminiscent of the iPhone. It works better, but still, it’s derivative.

Editor's Score

0

Nokia has always known how to make things that just “work”, and the user-friendly E5 continues the trend. Kipp hadn’t tried a Nokia for years when it turned on the review phone, but within 30 seconds we had the whole phone set up to our requirements. We feel for the Samsung here – it didn’t do much wrong, in fact it was great. But there is something about Nokias that just… well, works. It is all about function, however – the screen is not the best in terms of appearance.

Office nerds like Kipp could tell you that typing and sending a text has historically been slower than using Morse code. Seriously, two elderly morse code operators can beat two hyper-quick teen texters every day of the week. But Samsung has changed the game. They have created Swype, a new software that lets you use the onscreen QWERTY keyboard without having to lift your finger, except between words. It takes a day or two to get used to, but trust us – it is very, very fast.

Editor's Score

1

The Nokia has the standard, BlackBerry style keyboard, which is great if you are used to it (though the buttons aren’t as comfortably shaped as with BlackBerry). But this keyboard has never been perfect – women with long nails can find it tough to type, and those with big thumbs (Kipp is one) can find themselves typing the wrong letter fairly frequently. And unfortunately for Nokia, we are blown away by the Swype. (Also note it lacks the “trackpad” of the BlackBerry, having a pushbutton instead.)

Kipp had some trouble here. We decided to run a test, and send an image via the phone to another device via different methods. When it came to the Galaxy’s Bluetooth, we had problems – the phone consistently aborting the link up saying it wasn’t accepted. So we went the other way, and tried to extract the image, but we couldn’t find it. Now, we won’t say for sure it wasn’t our fault, but even a more-techy colleague couldn’t make it work. Everything else was fine, but this bugged us.

Editor's Score

0

Nokia made life easy. Thanks to the connectivity wizard things couldn’t have gone easier, and it achieved all the same as the Galaxy with a minimum of fuss. What is more we haven’t had to open the manual once, which is more than can be said for the Galaxy. Though the Bluetooth connection again gave us issues (perhaps it’s us after all), linking up and retrieving the image from the other device was quick and easy.

We could tell you about the 5 mega pixel camera, the 3.79mm focal length or the 2.6 F-Stop aperture, but the truth is we don’t know what any of that means. Instead we’ll get to the point: How is the camera’s picture quality? Excellent. How is the web browsing? Some of the best we’ve seen in a mobile, thanks to the big screen. What about the media? Very good. This is a solid all-round media device.

Editor's Score

1

Also boasting a 5mp camera, the E5 has a similar picture standard, though it lacks auto focus. How’s the web browsing? Not the best, thanks to the small screen. What about the media? Solid, at least sound-wise, though for videos again the screen lets it down, and it is limited in terms of video formats. But then, that’s not really what this phone is about, is it?

Have a seat. What’s that? You’re already sitting down? Well that’s probably just as well, because this bad boy would set you back a hefty 2699 AED without a contract. That hasn’t stopped it selling millions across the world, however, so maybe it’s worth it. As long as you always have a power socket handy. The Galaxy needed to be charged too frequently for our liking, despite claiming a standby time of up to 750 hours.

Editor's Score

0

By comparison, this is the cheap option. In fact for what you get it’s a very reasonable proposition: 987AED. And battery life is immense. It claims a whopping 705 hours standby time (in case you’re interested, BlackBerry battery life is around 456 on standby). Kipp is always cynical about these claims but we can say one thing for sure: we’ve had the E5 on for days, and unlike the Galaxy, we haven’t come close to charging it. It’s probably because the poor screen doesn’t use as much juice, but that suits us.

When we contacted Samsung, we asked to test “an alternative to Blackberry,” and they sent us the Galaxy. This is not an alternative to BlackBerry; this is something different. This is an alternative to the iPhone. That said, it will do everything you need it to, and fulfill all of your business functions. If you’re looking for an alternative to the iPhone, you won’t look back. But honestly, it won’t do business as well as the Nokia.

Editor's Score

0

For those giving up their BlackBerry and weighing up their options, the Nokia is a good choice. You won’t feel like you’ve upgraded – in fact, thanks to the lack of trackpad and simple looking icons, you might feel like you’ve downgraded. But you’ll be up and running instantly, and you’ll barely skip a beat – perfect for busy business professionals. Is it sexy? Is it fun? Will it wow people? Not really. But then, neither does a BlackBerry.

In the end it was almost too close to call. If you’re after a fancy smartphone, the Galaxy has plenty to offer – and the new Swype system is brilliant. But if you’re all about business and function, the Nokia is excellent, and much cheaper. So if we were replacing a BlackBerry, we’d go with the Nokia.

Samsung have done very good job making Galaxy S hardware and boosted with Google Android.
Nokia have been producing very good mobiles and yet its very good, but they are very weak from OS and they don’t feel like moving to Android.

John on October 10, 2010 3:02 pm

I don’t think you are comparing like to like. Samsung is a different class. I was told E5 is not a 3G phone!

John on November 2, 2010 9:06 am

A fair comparison would be Galaxy S with Nokia’s N8. According to a recent report from research firm Canalys, Android phones are growing at an amazing pace. So watch out Nokia- it is time to change your OS.